Despite a recent campaign drive and many efforts in alumni giving, Dartmouth's endowment per student is currently ranked 29th in the nation and fourth in the Ivy League, behind Princeton, Harvard and Yale Universities.
Dartmouth's endowment at the end of the 1997 fiscal year ranked 20th in the nation at $1.27 billion, while Harvard claimed the number one spot with a $10.92 billion endowment. The total size of Dartmouth's endowment is seventh among Ivy League institutions, larger only than Brown University's.
In the category of endowment per student, Princeton is far and away ranked number one with $775,773 per student. Its 6,369-member student body has an endowment that stands close to $5 billion.
Meanwhile, Dartmouth stands in 29th spot in the nation at $248,638 per student. Because Princeton only has 1,230 more students than Dartmouth, the large discrepancy does not lie in the total number of alumni from whom resources are drawn.
Dartmouth's highest ranking is in the percentage of total alumni giving, with 21,515 active donors out of the 46,685 members of the College's alumni community. With 46.1 percent of alumni donating to the College, Dartmouth ranks second in the Ivy League behind only Princeton, which has 48.3 percent of alumni supporting it.
Image is sometimes everything
Ginny Wyse Wilkins '87, both a Dartmouth alumna and the current assistant director of the Harvard College Fund, has experience to compare both institutions.
Wilkins emphasized the fundamental role of the alumni money -- "Tuition cannot cover the total cost of any Ivy League education," she said.
"Harvard does do better in dollars than in participation rate, which comes from consistently building strong relationships with those alumni who have already indicated interest in donating," she said. "Simply by reputation, our numbers are bigger."
But with 1,600 students per undergraduate class and a total of 17,897 Harvard students, there is automatically a significantly larger community of alumni, Wilkins said. "And, after all, more counts."
Princeton Director of Annual Giving William Hardt attributed his school's current fund-raising success to a variety of factors, with image being the main emphasis.
"Princeton and its alumni have a highly positive public image right now, with Nobel Prizes, high U.S. News [and World Report] rankings, our new financial aid initiative and the recent celebration of our 250th anniversary," Hardt said. "This generally positive backdrop has heightened people's overall interest in the university."
Reputation and the perception of an institution from the outside play a critical role in generating alumni support, he said. The role of the alumni affairs departments at various schools is responsible for raising positive awareness of the institution for as many members of the alumni community as possible.
Harvard's vice president for alumni affairs and development, Thomas Reardon, wrote in a promotional letter, "Let's face it: a gift to Harvard is an investment. I would submit that, as one considers the future, there are very few investments one could make that are as likely to have as great a yield as a gift to Harvard."
Reardon said donations are so substantial because alumni "recognize both the quality of the entire enterprise and the impact Harvard has on society."
Hardt recognized the important role of a healthy economy and stock market, but said, "there is no substitute for the first hand testimonies given by the 2,500 Princeton alumni volunteers and the overall reputation of the university."
Wilkins suggested Dartmouth may have lower donation numbers and amounts falling short of its potential because its reputation is not as current as those of their peer institutions.
"It has been said that Dartmouth's reputation is always 10 years old," she said. "Likewise, Dartmouth's alumni participation is always perceived as high, but it can't be relied on as much as it has been in the past. If it's not upheld, it will eventually affect the quality of the education."
The greatest strength in the College's fund-raising is the affinity Dartmouth alumni have with their particular classes, which Wilkins said is very unique.
"You'd never find that sort of thing here at Harvard," she said. "A dedication is indoctrinated into each class, which keeps Dartmouth so strong. Even now, over a decade after my Dartmouth years, when I meet fellow alumni, I automatically introduce myself as Ginny Wyse, Class of '87. I don't think that happens as strongly anywhere else."
A fund for everything
At Dartmouth, alumni can contribute money for restricted use, or for unrestricted use to the four annual giving programs: the Alumni Fund and the individual programs of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Thayer School of Engineering and Dartmouth Medical School.
Once money is donated to any of these four giving programs, no restrictions can be placed by the donor as to how they want the money spent.
"The Dartmouth Alumni Fund only deals with current-use, unrestricted money, so it doesn't contribute to the endowment at all," said Jeff Sassorossi, the Alumni Fund's deputy director. "The money given to the Alumni Fund basically goes in one pocket and out the next right away."
Unrestricted donations support all general operating costs, financial aid, faculty salaries, athletics and most aspects of College life. The Board of Trustees indicates where these donations are needed the most within the College and allot it accordingly.
"Any time you even turn on a light in a dorm room, it's because of help from the Alumni Fund," Sassorossi said. "We keep everything going."
The Capital Giving Office handles all restricted donations, which Sassorossi said "have a distinct purpose or tag on it." Such money can be given specifically for a particular team, academic department or towards the building of the College's endowment.
Both the Alumni Fund, the Capital Giving Office and Alumni Relations all fall under the greater umbrella of the vice president for Development and Alumni Relations, according to Rita Johnson, associate director of development.
Each fiscal year, most of the money donated to the College does not come through the Alumni Fund, which handles predominantly smaller donations. Larger donations are predominantly given with specific purposes in mind, not just the general operations of the College.
"Of the $100 million that was raised by all the development offices -- by the College, Tuck, Thayer and the Medical School -- in 1997, approximately $17 million was given to the Alumni Fund," Johnson said.
Putting money on sailboats
Some of the remaining money was donated as unrestricted gifts to be used as the College sees most fit. The majority balance of donations were given by the donors on the condition that it is needed by Dartmouth and used for specific purposes of interest to them, she said.
These restricted donations can fall into the category of "plant support" for building construction and renovation such as the Berry Library project, "gifts in kind," which include both real estate and artwork, or money given specifically as additions to the endowment, Johnson said.
"Donations provide financial support for all aspects of the College," she said. "Some examples from last year include $120,000 donated for sailboat replacements, $15,000 for the weight room and the a scoreboard for the football field, donated by the Class of '66."
However, the most popular restricted donation for the 1997 fiscal year was towards the endowment, which 4,000 donors supported, Johnson said.
"The endowment functions as the College's savings account, where only the interest being earned on the principle is spent," Sassorossi explained. It is used to support a range of research projects, internships, scholarship funds, financial aid and academic enrichment funds, as it is specified by the donor.
In the wake of the Alumni Fund's "Will to Excel" fund-raising drive, completed in 1996 with a total of $568 million raised, Johnson said she sees greater potential for growth in both the Alumni Fund and endowment-giving areas.
"We're falling right in the middle of the Ivies now," she said. "By focusing more on face-to-face alumni contact and promoting very large gifts for reunion years, we hope to see things take off in the coming years."
